Two Russians and one Ukrainian were arrested in the Albanian city of Gramsci, the Albanian Ministry of Defense reports. On August 20, around 18:40 (MSK) local time, the guards of the Gramsz military factory noticed suspicious movements around the facility. The head of security was informed that a man entered the territory and tried to take pictures. The officers urged the man to stop.
The man tried to leave, but was detained. At this point, the man responded by using a neuroparalytic spray on the two soldiers to escape, but was stopped. Outside the perimeter of the plant, two more people, a woman and a man, were seen accompanying this citizen. The Military Police personnel immediately reported this to the State Police, which detained them.
The head of the prosecutor's office told reporters that three Russians had been arrested and were under investigation by the Antiterrorist Office. A camera was confiscated from the Russians, on which photographs of the plant were found.
“The officers guarding the plant reacted immediately, but during their attempts to stop three foreign citizens, two of our soldiers were injured,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
ABC News, citing a statement from the Gramsci police, reports that “Russian citizen M.Z., 24 years old” has been detained. Also, the police received information that this citizen was accompanied by two more citizens, roadblocks were set up and the area was checked. Police services managed to detect and block a Chevrolet-type car in the vicinity of this area, which was driven by “a citizen of Russia S.T., 33 years old, and a citizen of Ukraine F.A., 25 years old.”
A number of media reports that two men and a woman were detained.
Update 00:36. ABC News names the two detainees. They are 33-year-old Russian citizen Svetlana Timofoeva and 23-year-old Ukrainian citizen Mikhail Zorin. Later, a clarification of the surname appeared - Svetlana Timofeeva.